Maiduguri

Maiduguri, also called Yerwa, or Yerwa-Maiduguri, capital and largest city of Borno state, northeastern Nigeria. It is located on the north bank of the seasonal Ngadda (Alo) River, the waters of which disappear in the firki (“black cotton”) swamps just southwest of Lake Chad, about 70 miles (113 km) northeast.

Pyramids of peanut (groundnut) bags, Maiduguri, Nigeria

John Moss/Photo Researchers

Modern Maiduguri actually comprises the twin towns of Yerwa and Maiduguri. In 1907 Yerwa (whose name is derived from an Arabic expression meaning “quenching the thirst,” referring to the waters of the nearby river) was founded on the site of the hamlet of Kalwa and was named by Shehu (“Sheikh,” or “Sultan”) Bukar Garbai as the new traditional capital of the Kanuri people (replacing Kukawa, 80 miles [130 km] north-northeast, the former capital of the Bornu kingdom [seeKanem-Bornu]). Meanwhile, the market village of Maiduguri, just to the south, was selected by the British to replace nearby Mofoni (Maifoni, Mafoni) as their military headquarters; and, in 1908, they built a residency in what then became the capital of British Bornu. The combined city—locally called Yerwa—was divided into the urban district of Yerwa and the rural district of Maiduguri in 1957; but outside Borno both political units are now known simply as Maiduguri.

The arrival of the railway in 1964 reinforced Maiduguri’s importance as the chief commercial centre of northeastern Nigeria. Livestock (mainly cattle but also goats and sheep), cattle hides, goatskins and sheepskins, finished leather products, dried fish, crocodile skins (the last two brought from Lake Chad), peanuts (groundnuts), and gum arabic are the city’s chief exports; but there is also considerable local trade in sorghum, millet, corn (maize), rice, cotton, and indigo. There is a large cattle ranch at nearby Gombole, and poultry farming has been introduced in the surrounding countryside. The Monday market at Yerwa, a tradition brought from Kukawa, is the largest in the state; most goods are transported by donkey and, likewise in centuries-old fashion, by oxen owned by the seminomadic Shuwa Arabs.

Maiduguri’s population consists mainly of Muslim Kanuri and Shuwa peoples with an admixture of Christian Nigerians from the south. Since the mid-1960s the city has become an important industrial and educational centre for Borno state. Besides food-processing facilities (slaughterhouse, meat-refrigeration plant, peanut-oil mill, and chewing-gum factory), its industries manufacture leather goods, wooden and metal furniture, nails, aluminum and steel structural products, and asbestos cement. The government has launched a reforestation project in the area around the city, in part to provide wood for its industries.

Educational facilities include the University of Maiduguri (1975), the Ramat Polytechnic, the Borno College of Legal and Islāmic Studies, the Borno State Advanced Teachers College, and an Islāmic teacher-training college sponsored by the shehu. The university operates a teaching hospital, and there is also a general hospital in the city. The Lake Chad Research Institute is located in Maiduguri.

The city is dominated by the palace and the adjacent mosque of the shehu of Bornu, the second (after only the sultan of Sokoto) most important traditional Muslim leader in Nigeria. The city also lies astride the historic pilgrim route from Senegal to Mecca. It is the terminus for the main railway line linking northeastern Nigeria to Port Harcourt, is served by the main highway system, and is a hub for secondary highways serving the state. There is an airport located 5.5 miles (9 km) west of Maiduguri. Pop. (2005 est.) 854,000.

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African trading empire ruled by the Sef (Sayf) dynasty that controlled the area around Lake Chad from the 9th to the 19th century. Its territory at various times included what is now southern Chad, northern Cameroon, northeastern Nigeria, eastern Niger, and southern Libya.

Maiduguri is the state capital, its main industrial centre, and by far its largest city. Biu and Bama also are sizable market towns. Maiduguri has an airport and is served by a railway to Bauchi and the south, as well as by trunk roads to Potiskum, Bauchi, Yola, and Ndjamena (Chad). Pop. (2006) 4,151,193.